Going Platinum Inc. was started in Lancaster, Pennsyvania, and promised that its multi-level marketing program can "turn a $3,000 per month Going Platinum income into well over $30,000 per month!" But reading over the news groups has a different story to tell. This is a company you should be cautious of.

Their delay in launching immediately made a lot of people start questioning what they were saying. Going Platinum charges an initial membership fee of $25.

And the business sounds great. As Going Platinum describes itself, "It is a full-service ISP, Internet Gateway, Search Engine/Directory, Shopping Mall, Virtual Office, and just about anything else you can think of, all rolled into one site."

But in truth, there is no Internet Mall. Although Alan Catalan, President and CEO, once announced that it would open before Christmas 2000, and then again on January 15, the mall now has no stated launch date.

It seems to me that in the absence of a functioning mall, Going Platinum's only significant revenue source is new paying members, who enroll other new paying members. People who enroll 39 other payers are promised as much as 40 percent of the profits from the money those 39 people paid. This is called "Going Platinum."

Members who do all of this, however, may be surprised to find that they are entitled to little, if any, of the promised money. A lengthy "Membership Fees" document explains that Going Platinum will subtract a "monthly fee," up to the amount of a member's estimated payouts.

For a Platinum member with a full Organization of 39 other members, that would mean you have to pay Going Platinum a whopping $6,125 per month. That sounds like losing money instead of making it.

Another concern is the fact that the Going Platinum was paying commissions through CompuBank, a respected online bank in Texas. But the WorldWideScam site posted a message from CompuBank saying the bank ended its relationship with Going Platinum.

Going Platinum confirmed this, in a message to members that was also republished at WorldWideScam's site. The horror stories of earlier Internet malls that collapsed should make anyone in their right mind think twice before going in this direction.